Netflix

This week I’m catching up with Parris Lilly, now of Gamertag Radio. We discuss the similarities in our moves to California and life in The Golden State. Parris also talks about the changes in his quality of life since he switched jobs. Finally, we discuss his “coming out of retirement” to join Gamertag Radio, impressions of the next generation of gaming consoles, and the possibilities of SteamOS. Enjoy!

1. I finally found a reliable way to pull photos off of my phone. This means I can queue up all kinds of awesome on The Daily Dexcom, and on the cat’s Tumblr which turned 1 today.

And B. I know everyone is talking about Breaking Bad at the moment, and with good reason, but I recently started working through ‘Archer’ on Netflix – it’s fantastic.

It was tough finding a clip to share that wouldn’t get you in trouble if you are reading this at work, but this should give you an idea of what you can look forward to if you decide to put this in your Instant Queue.

As a public service to you (and because I don’t have anything else worth writing about at the moment) I’ve picked out a few of the latest releases to come through the interwebs to your streaming device of choice.

I’ve had some time to adjust to life without cable and I think I’m finally ready to put thought to keyboard. Almost a month ago Dayle and I came to the conclusion that we watch far too much television without actually watching television. Somewhere between my checking twitter on my iPad and her reading on her Kindle – all of this while Chopped was on in the background – we realized enough was enough. I had had plenty of conversations with friends and colleagues about “cutting the cord” but up until that moment the idea of putting that theory in to practice was not something I had seriously entertained. A few hours later and some mild spreadsheeting to confirm – I was convinced this was something worth pursuing. Logistically, this could work.

Cutting the cord works for us logistically because we spend most of our time watching shows off the DVR. We watch Jimmy Fallon the day after it airs. We tape Modern Family and the Thursday night lineup on NBC and watch it later because our jobs and commute leave us with enough energy to make dinner and not much else. Watching live television basically boiled down to Football and Hockey – more on that in a few sentences. Outside of the DVR our media came from a handful of familiar streaming services: Netflix, Amazon and HBO Go. If you add in Hulu Plus, Roku offers the ability to consume all of those streaming services through one handy device.

Simply put: Google Reader : RSS :: Roku : Streaming Television Services. Rather than go to each service individually through an iPad or Xbox or through your laptop’s HDMI output, Roku functions as a central hub for all your streaming needs. After a few minutes of configuration and account verification, you are ready to watch all your favorite programs online. Legally.

Let this short and sweet post serve as a public service announcement that the latest update of Netflix Instant Watch includes Tomorrow Never Dies (blah), The World is Not Enough (blah) and GoldenEye (Bing!). Depending on who you talk to, there really is no debate as to who the best Bond is. Me? I’m a fan of what Daniel Craig brings to the series. Bond has always been kinda fancy for me in the past and I’m a fan of the brutality. Maybe that’s a sign of something deeper.

I used to play video games all the time. I was put on academic probation one semester in college because I was too focused on Halo 2, among other games, instead of that whole higher learning part. As the real world slowly took over these past few years, my gaming habits have significantly changed. Depending on your perspective they have changed for the better or the worse but simply put, I’m not the gamer I used to be. Right now free time is a commodity and too often I am finding myself hesitating to sit down and spend that free time with random people online hurling insults or losing myself in an epic single player experience. It’s not that I’m quitting video games or anything, just that my gaming habits are evolving into something different. And yet despite these changes, I don’t think any of the major consoles makers and their respective decision makers are too worried.